When climate scientists refer to "tipping points" it is usually bad news -- a moment beyond which elevated levels of greenhouse gas emissions will result in extreme weather and catastrophic damage to life upon this planet. Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment may be seen as another "tipping point" -- towards ensuring that communities of faith take up the moral challenge to preserve and protect creation.

Recently, a very senior marketing professional who works at one of the world's largest corporations was recounting a story of how they saw a postal truck outside of their corporate head offices in Silicon Valley, and every single parcel that was being offloaded from this truck was from Amazon. He thought to himself: "This is the what retail looks like in 2012."